About Hypnosis & NLP

Hypnosis & NLP for Positive Change

According to the Mayo Clinic “Hypnosis can be used to help you gain control over undesired behaviors or to help you cope better with anxiety or pain. It’s important to know that although you’re more open to suggestion during hypnosis, you don’t lose control over your behavior.”

Hypnosis is a safe, natural state of relaxation combined with focused concentration. Everyone drifts in and out of hypnotic states every day while watching television, daydreaming, driving long distances and just before falling asleep. Though deeply relaxed, your unconscious mind is actually more alert, aware and focused in hypnosis than during normal waking consciousness. Hypnotherapy is a state of deep relaxation, combined with focused concentration that promotes change quickly and easily. During hypnosis, you remain in total control and cannot be made to act involuntarily. Thousands of people just like you lose weight, quit smoking and create positive changes with hypnosis every day! Hypnosis makes positive changes easy and enjoyable without side effects.

What does a hypnosis session feel like?

Hypnosis offers a non-intrusive approach in a comfortable environment. Clients frequently report how relaxed they feel in the company of a skilled hypnotherapist. A session usually begins with an informal chat, discussing the goals you’d like to accomplish, sometimes the Hypnotherapist will guide you through an interesting and even entertaining exercise designed to help you teach your mind new strategies for getting what you want. Then you will proceed with a hypnosis session infused with suggestions for change. During your hypnosis session, you recline comfortably in a chair, fully aware of your surroundings and in total control. Sessions are pleasantly relaxing and typically last about an hour to an hour and a half. All of our practitioners have determined their own “best practice” for creating maximum change using their individual techniques.

Clients generally report feeling happy, rested and refreshed following their appointments and that positive changes generally begin right away.

Can anyone be hypnotized?

Generally speaking the answer is yes but the degree of success between subjects will vary based upon a number of factors. The techniques you’ll experience during hypnosis are similar to the techniques used by professional athletes and Olympic competitors to create the winning edge for success. Some clients feel deeply relaxed during their sessions while others focus keenly on the suggestions. If you can follow simple instructions such as “count backwards from 10,” your mind can absorb positive suggestions and you will benefit from dedicated focus on your goal. Your satisfaction is our number one priority!

NLP stands for Neuro-Linguistic Programming, a name that encompasses the three most influential components involved in producing human experience: neurology, language and programming. The neurological system regulates how our bodies function, language determines how we interface and communicate with other people and our programming determines the kinds of models of the world we create. Neuro-Linguistic Programming incorporates the fundamental dynamics between mind (neuro) and language (linguistic) and how their interplay affects our body and behavior (programming).

About NLP

NLP is a pragmatic school of thought that addresses the many levels involved in being human.

NLP is an interactive process that involves the development of behavioral competence and flexibility, while also involving strategic thinking and an understanding of the mental and cognitive processes behind those behaviors.

NLP provides tools and skills for the development of states of individual excellence, as it simultaneously establishes a system of empowering beliefs and presuppositions about what human beings are, what communication is and what the process of change is all about.

NLP is also about self-discovery, exploring ones identity and mission. It provides a framework for understanding and relating to the ‘spiritual’ part of human experience that reaches beyond us as individuals to our family, community and global systems.

To summarize, NLP is not only about competence and excellence, it is about wisdom and vision.

In essence, all of NLP is founded on two fundamental presuppositions:

1. The Map is Not the Territory. As human beings, we can never know reality. We can only know our perceptions of reality. We experience and respond to the world around us primarily through our sensory representational systems. It is our ‘neuro-linguistic’ maps of reality that determine how we behave and that give those behaviors meaning, not reality itself. It is generally not reality that limits us or empowers us, but rather our map of reality.

2. Life and ‘Mind’ are Systemic Processes. The processes that take place within a human being and between human beings and their environment are systemic. Our bodies, our societies, and our universe form an ecology of complex systems and sub-systems all of which interact with and mutually influence each other. It is not possible to completely isolate any part of the system from the rest of the system. Such systems are based on certain ‘self-organizing’ principles and naturally seek optimal states of balance or homeostasis.

All of the models and techniques of NLP are based on the combination of these two principles. In the belief system of NLP it is not possible for human beings to know objective reality.

Wisdom, ethics and ecology do not derive from having the one ‘right’ or ‘correct’ map of the world, because human beings would not be capable of making one. Rather, the goal is to create the richest map possible that respects the systemic nature and ecology of ourselves and the world we live in.

The people who are most effective are the ones who have a map of the world that allows them to perceive the greatest number of available choices and perspectives. NLP is a way of enriching the choices that you have and perceive as available in the world around you. Excellence comes from having many choices. Wisdom comes from having multiple perspectives.

NLP was originated by John Grinder (whose background was in linguistics) and Richard Bandler (whose background was in mathematics and gestalt therapy) for the purpose of making explicit models of human excellence. Their early work identified the verbal and behavioral patterns of therapists Fritz Perls (the creator of gestalt therapy) and Virginia Satir (internationally renowned family therapist).

They then examined the verbal and behavioral patterns of Milton Erickson, founder of the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis and one of the most widely acknowledged and clinically successful psychiatrists of our times.

Through this work, Grinder and Bandler formalized their modeling techniques and their own individual contributions under the name “Neuro-Linguistic Programming” to symbolize the relationship between the brain, language and the body. Through the years, NLP has developed some very powerful tools and skills for communication and change in a wide range of professional areas including: counseling, psychotherapy, education, health, creativity, law, management, sales, leadership and parenting.

NLP is now in its fourth decade as a field of study and has evolved considerably since its beginnings in the mid 1970s. Over the years, NLP has literally spread around the world and has touched the lives of millions of people. Since the 1990’s, a new generation of NLP has been developing. This form of NLP addresses generative and systemic applications and focuses on high level issues such as identity, vision and mission.